Church has not changed position on political activities of Paraguayan bishop, says Nunciature

Asunción, Paraguay, Apr 17, 2008 / 05:18 pm (CNA).- The Apostolic Nunciature in Paraguay has issued a brief statement indicating that “the position of the Catholic Church expressed in documents from the Holy See and the Paraguayan Bishops’ Conference regarding the canonical status and partisan political activities of Bishop Fernando Lugo has not changed.”

In the statement dated April 14, the Nunciature indicates that the new statement was released “in response to statements that have recently appeared in the media” claiming that the bishop had received a dispensation to become a presidential candidate in the elections, which is not the case.

“The practice of the Holy See is the process events as they happen,” the Nunciature stressed, noting that the “disciplinarian measure of ‘a divinis’ suspension is a sanction and not a faculty.”